Comedian Kevin Hart is retiring from the annual NBA All-Star Celebrity Game after taking home his fourth prize for Most Valuable Player (MVP) on Friday night (13Feb15). The Ride Along star led the East team as they faced off against the West at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden as part of the NBA All-Star Weekend basketball festivities.
Hart scored 15 points, but it wasn't enough as the West, featuring the likes of rapper/actor Common, Arcade Fire rocker Win Butler and actor Ansel Elgort, beat their rivals 59-51.
Other participants included Nick Cannon, actor Chadwick Boseman, comedienne Sarah Silverman and Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams, who bowed out of the exhibition game early with a leg injury. Director Spike Lee served as a coach.
Despite the East's loss, Hart was named the game's MVP for the fourth consecutive year, prompting him to announce his retirement from the tournament.
After claiming the fan-voted prize, he told the crowd, "It's my fourth MVP. I can't do no more (sic)."

British pop star Lee Ryan wants to become ordained so he can officiate at his bandmate Antony Costa's upcoming wedding. The Blue singer is reportedly hoping to legally oversee his pal's marriage and has been researching into websites that will allow him to officiate at ceremonies.
A source tells British newspaper The Sun, "Lee has always been a bit of a Casanova, but now he wants to play Cupid... He's a great believer in true love and is on a mission to create wonderful memories - if he can get through the vows without crying... Lee wants nothing more than to perform a marriage for his friends and will go to any lengths to make sure it's a magical day... Antony loves Lee like a brother, but with something this important, he just wants everything to go smoothly."
Costa got engaged to dental nurse Rosanna Jasmin in 2013 and they are hoping to tie the knot later this year (15).

Former The Animals star Danny Mcculloch has died after suffering cardiac heart failure on 29 January (15). The bassist's kids, Natasha, Nina, Tara and Alistair have released the sad news in the form of a tribute to their dad, who played with Screaming Lord Sutch, Muddy Waters and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as Eric Burdon's '60s group.
The statement from McCulloch's children reads: "Danny McCulloch died suddenly on the morning of Thursday the January 29, 2015 from cardiac heart failure. At age 69 this 'giant amongst us' departed doing what he loved until the end, though he still had more to give in life and in music.
"Although best known for the earth shattering riffs played with Eric Burdon and the Animals, giving depth and vitality to Burdon's vocals, there was much more to his individual composition and passion for the raw music."
McCulloch, who Jimi Hendrix once hailed the best bass guitarist he had ever seen, left The Animals in 1968 to become an in-demand session musician.
He was considered the natural replacement for Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones when he quit the group in the early 1990s, but he was too busy working on his own album Beowulf. It is not known if he was offered the gig.

Actress Pamela Anderson has filed for divorce from Rick Salomon once again, less than six months after seeking the dismissal of her previous petition. The former Baywatch star, 47, moved to end her second brief marriage to the film producer in July (14), citing irreconcilable differences for the split, but the on/off couple subsequently reunited and the divorce paperwork was dismissed weeks later.
However, the reconciliation didn't last and on Wednesday (11Feb15), Anderson lodged new split documents in court, according to TMZ.com.
She listed Tuesday (10Feb15) as their date of separation.
Anderson is seeking spousal support from poker player Salomon, who co-starred in Paris Hilton's sex tape One Night in Paris.
The busty blonde initially wed Salomon in 2007, but the union was annulled two months later. She confirmed they had married again in January (14), but did not reveal the exact date of the nuptials.
If she goes through with the divorce, it will be her third - Anderson was previously married to musicians Tommy Lee and Kid Rock.

"I kind of took the diva-ness of Mariah (Carey), who I know socially and really like, but she's always with four people. She's got a bodyguard and stuff like that, which I don't need. Mariah is her own universe and I adore her, but she's hilarious. (I also used) some of Whitney (Houston) and the tragedy of Whitney, a little (Amy) Winehouse... (and) a little Stevie (Nicks)... I always steal from Stevie anyway." Courtney Love on how she built her Elle Dallas character for Lee Daniels' music industry TV drama Empire.

Actor Terrence Howard almost lost out on the top role in Lee Daniels' new drama series Empire because he was too heavy after piling on the pounds for another TV project. The Oscar nominee reveals he tipped the scales at 250 pounds (113.4 kilograms) at the start of the show's production and would have been fired had he not received the help of Empire's crewmembers, who were determined to get Howard back into tip-top shape so he could keep his job as conniving hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon.
During an interview on U.S. morning show Live with Kelly and Michael on Wednesday (11Feb15), he said, "I came into the show at 250 pounds... I was playing this character in this other thing with (U.S. network) Fox, called Wayward Pines, and the character was a heavy sheriff, so I had an excuse to eat the ice cream and all of that...
"But then afterwards, I couldn't get it off, so when I got to this show (Empire), there was talk about letting me go because it wasn't the leading man look and all of that. So the crew was like, 'We like you, Terrence, so this is what we're gonna do. At the end of every... scene, if we have five, six scenes in a day, we do push ups till failure...' I mean, not just 10, 20, we do push ups till failure."
Howard then tried to demonstrate his strength by challenging TV hosts Kelly Ripa and former American football star Michael Strahan to a push-ups contest, but they both outlasted him as the actor was the first to give up.

Lee Daniels was left in tears after shooting the pilot episode of his new hip-hop drama Empire after watching actor Terrence Howard dump his onscreen son in a trash can - because it was exactly what his own father had done to the director as a child. The first episode of the series featured Howard as a conniving music mogul who refuses to accept his young son is gay, and the Oscar nominee admits he found it tough to play such a cold-hearted man, but his feelings were nothing compared to what Daniels went through as he watched a brutal incident from his childhood unfold onscreen.
Howard recalls, "When we were doing the scene in the pilot, where I take my son Jamal, who's dressed up in high heels and a scarf... at five years old, and I take him and I put him inside the trash can... when we shot that, I was trying to be nice a little bit and Lee was like, 'No, don't do it the nice way because that's not how it was done, that's not how it was done for me.'
"And then when I finally did it without any compassion and without any remorse, Lee was in the background, he couldn't even watch the camera any more, he was just in tears... absolute tears (because) that's exactly what his father did to him."
Daniels has previously spoken at length about his police officer father William, who used to abuse him as a kid because of his sexuality, revealing he 'came out' as a gay man because he "loathed" his dad so much.
He added, "I couldn't understand how you could, with an extension cord, beat a 45-pound kid just because he's aware of his femininity."

"I have all these friends that know the producer, Lee Daniels, and a wonderful man and a great director... So many friends over the years have said, 'Get in touch with Lee.' I didn't wanna stalk him or anything, but I had this friend who one night said, 'Lee was talking about you last night. Here's his number', and so I texted him and a minute later he called me and he said, 'I think I have a role for you.' I mean, (it was) meant to be. It's crazy." Courtney Love reached out to filmmaker Lee Daniels on the advice of mutual pals after learning he was a big fan of her work. The call resulted in the rocker being cast in a recurring role in his new TV drama series Empire.

Singer Lee Greenwood has written a patriotic book for children. Greenwood, best known for his popular track God Bless the USA, has featured lyrics from the song in the book, titled Proud to Be an American, and detailed the story of his childhood with his World War II veteran father.
He says, "As you sit reading the words of my song to your child or grandchild in my new book, it is my hope that young and old alike will feel tremendous pride in being citizens of the United States of America."
The book, which also includes a free download of his famous song, will hit book stores in America on 23 May (15), which is also Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S.

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are among the latest Hollywood heavyweights who have joined calls for British officials to grant pardons to thousands of gay men who were prosecuted when homosexuality was illegal in the U.K. The two actors, who played lovers in Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, have signed a petition which was launched last month (Jan15) in honour of Alan Turing, the gay World War II codebreaker played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Oscar-nominated movie The Imitation Game.
The petition has been gathering speed since Cumberbatch threw his weight behind it, and other stars who have now given their backing include Jessica Alba, Ryan Reynolds, Channing Tatum and Bryan Cranston, while previous signatories include Cumberbatch's The Imitation Game co-star Keira Knightley, director Sam Taylor-Johnson, actor Matthew Goode, and moviemaker Lee Daniels.
As WENN went to press, the petition had gained more than 200,000 signatures.